Mega Flicks

With its opening today, Pacific Theatres’ Winnetka 20, a multiscreen movie palace designed for Third Millennium film-goers, achieves instant status as the San Fernando Valley’s largest movie venue. The complex will have state-of-the-art movie presentation technology, an unparalleled selection of food choices, and still room to grow.

Less than five years ago, there were just 22 movie screens west of Winnetka Avenue to serve the west San Fernando Valley. With the opening of the Winnetka 20, that number will jump to 59 screens--almost triple the 1993 mark.

“I call it a virus,” said John Krier, president of Exhibitor Relations, a Los Angeles entertainment consulting firm, referring to the industrywide proliferation of these modern-day movie palaces. “Everybody wants to build a megaplex. But it creates some intense competition. . . . They’ve been cannibalizing each other.”

The Chatsworth venue is part of a continuing expansion by Pacific Theatres, which has new screens going up at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood as well as Northridge, and has plans for more in Westwood, Sherman Oaks and Hawaii.

The explosion of screens started in 1994 when Pacific received approval from the city planning commission for a 20-screen complex near the corner of Victory and Topanga Canyon boulevards. Shortly thereafter, AMC Theatres announced plans to build a 16-screen venue in the nearby Promenade Mall in Woodland Hills.

In August 1995, General Cinema completed construction on the expansion of its Fallbrook venue in West Hills from seven to 10 screens, increasing the complex’s seating capacity to 2,800. At around the same time, Pacific Theatres quietly canceled their plans for a megaplex in Woodland Hills. Later the United Artists Warner Center expanded to eight screens.

The first modern megaplex in the West Valley with airliner-style chairs and stadium seating, the 16-screen, 3,000-seat AMC Promenade, opened in March 1996.

The new Winnetka 20 has a staggering 5,900 seats.

It also served as host Thursday to about 200 fifth-graders from Noble Avenue Elementary School in North Hills who had a chance to perform stunts, view special effects demonstrations, draw animated characters and watch a film clip from the projection booth--all under the watchful eye of entertainment industry professionals.

The movie company sponsored the field trip through its Wonder of Reading program, a children’s literacy initiative that rebuilt the school library, stocked it with $10,000 worth of books and developed an after-school mentoring program.

Thursday’s outing was a way to expose the students to careers in the entertainment industry that they may have never considered, said program coordinator Joanna Wiedoeft.

Asked if she was concerned that the corporate-sponsored outing may be a marketing ploy to get children and parents into theater seats, Wiedoeft said: “If this serves their purpose in some way, so be it. It is also helping our children.”

The Winnetka 20’s opening day lineup will be “Titanic,” “Blues Brothers 2000” “The Replacement Killers,” “Great Expectations,” “The Apostle” “As Good as It Gets,” and “Good Will Hunting.”